


The Cake

by LadybugSin



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Age Difference, Aged-Up Character(s), F/M, but you guys gotta read it because I am not spoiling it!, post identity reveal, there's another surprise in here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2016-07-14
Packaged: 2018-07-23 23:14:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7483797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadybugSin/pseuds/LadybugSin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Marinette slaves away on a cake and Gabriel says the wrong thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cake

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write a cute, fluffy thing and this is what I ended up with! Enjoy.

The cake wasn’t coming out right. She really should have listened better when her father taught her how to make a cake that would show a message when you cut into it. Maybe she just missed something while making it? Yes, yes that had to be it! Maybe she just made some small mistake that she could easily fix so that way the message would exist!

Marinette didn’t know how long she spent in that kitchen, making cake after cake and cleaning up any messes between each attempt before she had to stop and admit that no, her message was not going to appear in the cake, she was going to have to forget about it all together. If she tried anymore, she was going to stress even more and possibly have a slight break down.

Now wouldn’t that be a sight? Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the woman who is secretly Paris’ heroine Ladybug, having a break down over a cake! A _cake_ of all things!

She was lucky that Gabriel wasn’t home. If there would be anything worse than breaking down over a cake that wouldn’t come out right, it was being found by the man the cake was for and having to explain to him just why she was breaking down over a cake. She was the daughter of a baker, she shouldn’t be breaking down!

“Okay, Mari . . . Just breathe, just . . . Just breathe and think. So this method isn’t working out. I just gotta make a cake. That’s all I have to do. That’s all I have to- oh! Oh, maybe . . . Yeah, that might work!”

A grin breaking out on her face, she moved around to grab the needed ingredients for the new cake. This one was going to work, she knew it! It was going to work and it was going to come out just right!

***

Gabriel came home about three hours after she had finished the cake. She knew he was going to be home late, but she was disappointed that he didn’t come home earlier for once. The cake wasn’t going to be as fresh, and it didn’t help that it took her longer than usual to pipe on the flowers. Her icing used for decoration had all been eaten (and she knew exactly which kwami to blame for devouring it, as well as which one to blame for not stopping the other. Nooroo had too much of a sweet tooth) so she had to make the icing fresh. That almost came out completely wrong until she managed to salvage it and restore it. And her hand had been shaking while she piped on the flowers, so some petals and leaves looked out of place or misshapen.

Marinette wouldn’t have had this problem if her icing hadn’t all been eaten! She needed some sort of kwami proof place for all of her baking goods. Only then would she actually be able to make something right!

To make matters worse, Adrien had attempted to cut a slice of cake for himself. Thankfully she had stopped him before the knife had even breached the icing and ruined her work, though her sudden shouts startled the other and caused him to jump a good foot or so away from the counter. He didn’t even ask what her problem was, having taken one look at her before running as far away as he could.

Despite her nerves making her want to turn and run out of the house and completely rethink this plan, Marinette grabbed the tray with the cake, as well as a plate and utensils so Gabriel could cut into the dessert and see the message she had managed to leave for him, and made her way to his office.

“Gabriel?” She poked her head inside before stepping in, keeping to the door. “I-I um . . . I have a surprise for you.” Damn her stammering. She couldn’t be nervous about this, especially now! She couldn’t run, she couldn’t even think of doing that. She just had to focus, give him the cake, and wait for his reaction.

Hopefully it would be a good one. She slaved on this cake all day.

Gabriel looked up from his paperwork, smiling when he caught sight of Marinette. He tilted his head to the side when he noticed the cake, moving his stuff aside a moment after to leave room for the tray. It wasn’t often that Marinette made a cake to bring to him. Normally it was on special occasions, though he was quite certain that he hadn’t forgotten anything.

She grinned, walking over to his desk to set everything down on the newly cleared space. Well. This was going to be it then. Marinette took a step back as Gabriel picked up the knife, watching as he just barely cut into the cake’s pink icing before he spoke.

“You know, Mari. This cake is lovely, but . . . I’m confused as to why it’s not as elaborate as usual.”

He did not just say that.

Marinette narrowed her eyes, hands curling into fists. He did _not_ just say that about her cake! Of all the things he could say, and it wasn’t even what she wanted to hear! He hadn’t even finished cutting the slice before speaking, probably hadn’t even thought of what he was saying either! Has anyone ever been so insensitive?!

Yes, she might have been overreacting, but that didn’t stop her from speaking up in response and didn’t stop her from thinking of what she was going to say either.

“Not as elaborate? Not. As. _Elaborate_?! Do you have **any** idea how _long_ I worked on this cake?! All day! All **_damn_** day, Gabriel! Not only that, but this is just _one_ of many attempts and the only one I could actually make _right_ since the rest were how elaborate I normally make them! And between each cake I had to clean up huge messes because the past attempts were failures! Failures! I don’t make failures, but all of those were! So then I settled on this one, and Nooroo decided to eat all the icing I was going to use. You know what that meant? That meant I had to make more icing, which meant cleaning up _another_ mess!”

Gabriel could only stare as Marinette’s voice rose in volume with each sentence. He didn’t expect her to get so worked up over this, especially over a cake. And he knew that she might be the daughter of a baker, but she was also twenty-six years old and in the three years they had been together, had never gotten this worked up over him making a simple comment about what she had made. Unless . . .

He _had_ noticed mood swings. Mood swings that seemed out of place otherwise. He noticed if she snuck off with an odd combination of something to eat. Each time he noticed something that seemed to be off, he did try to ignore it and pretend it wasn’t what he feared it was.

With that in mind, he finished cutting the slice, revealing a blue velvet cake hidden by the pink icing.

Ah. Well. This was exactly what he thought. Now he had to do something that would calm her down before she did something that might affect the baby.

Oh god. A baby. He had not been counting on any of this to happen.

“Marinette.”

His voice startled her out of her rant. Marinette faced him again, glancing down to see the slice finally on the plate.

“You’re pregnant.”

He said it so bluntly that she wasn’t even sure how she was supposed to respond. What was she even expecting his reaction to be?

“Y-yes, I . . . I-I’m pregnant.”

It seemed odd to actually say that, to have those words finally fall from her lips after weeks of keeping it to herself. She was pregnant. She was pregnant with Gabriel’s child, and he stated it without giving away any emotion that she wasn’t even sure how he felt about any of this.

What if he didn’t even want it?

Her anger seemed to fade away immediately, tears forming in her eyes. She didn’t see him standing up to walk over to her, her mind already racing with worsening ideas of what he would say next, of what he might suggest that they do. She wanted to keep the baby, she didn’t want to get rid of it!

“I . . .” She what?

Marinette drifted away from him, walking over to one of the couches. She moved to lay on one of them, trying to keep her breathing even, trying to not start crying. He could have said something other than what she wanted him to know, he could have said his feelings on the matter!

“I was so, _so_ scared to tell you . . . I wasn’t even sure how to tell you, a-and a cake seemed to be the best way to do so . . . But now you’ve seen the cake, and you know, and . . .” Marinette curled up a bit, unable to hold back the tears now. “And I don’t even know what to do next. I don’t even know if I’m ready to be a mother, but I want this baby! I don’t even know if you want this baby though, a-and we’re still the heroes of Paris! I don’t . . . Wh-what am I even supposed to do?”

She didn’t hear him approach as she spoke, didn’t even react when he sat beside her and pulled her into his lap. Marinette’s arms wrapped around him right away as she pressed her face against his chest, her body trembling.

“I’m scared, Gabriel. I’m scared.”

“I am, too. You know I don’t exactly . . . Have the best track record, at being a father. But if you want to have this baby, then . . . Then maybe this is a second chance to be a good one.”

Marinette looked up at him, a small smile tugging at her lips. “You’re a good father, Gabriel. And I know you would be a good father to this baby. Besides. Adrien didn’t turn out that bad, you know?”

“That was more you than me,” he responded, a smile of his own on his face.

“Well, I’m here, and I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon.”


End file.
